Van Bourgondien

January 2007 Winner

LeAnne Porter of Hoover, AL is our January 2007 Winner!

When I was a child I hated the word garden. My daddy was a County Extension Chairman and owned a farm of several hundred acres. I spent many hours on long, hot summer days picking peas and tomatoes in south Alabama. Daddy believed that a plant wasn't worth much unless you could eat it. However, he took excellent care of his plants. I certainly wasn't an eager student, but some of his diligence did rub off on me - possibly by osmosis!

Our lot drops 90 feet from one corner to the diagonally opposite corner. This presented interesting landscaping problems both from the standpoint of aesthetics and preventing erosion. I was also attempting to create year-round interest.

We have shady, woody areas and open, sunny areas so a wide variety of plants will grow well. The year starts with several varieties of hellebores and camellias. I feel like spring has sprung with crocus blooms followed very shortly by daffodils, species tulips, hyacinths, primrose, blue bells, creeping phlox, ajuga, and epimedium. Quince, forsythia, redbud and dogwood trees add their blossoms along with azaleas, weigela and lily of the valley. Then the iris join the show followed in quick succession by all sorts of lilies. Daisies, black-eyed susans, coneflowers, roses, hydrangeas, crepe myrtles and hibiscus add to the color parade in summer. Spider lilies, dahlias, and chrysanthemums brighten the fall along with Sasanqua camellias. Winter is highlighted by beauty berry and nandina berries combined with cyclamen, late-blooming Sansanquas, and early-blooming hellebores.

My husband’s attitude somewhat reminds me of my attitude as a child – he hates digging holes for plants, but he loves making pictures of the blooms! And in tribute to my daddy we have pots of tomatoes on our deck, many herbs in the flower beds, and an asparagus bed at the bottom of our hill.